The new Motorola is among us, or so the company says. The US-based handset maker has been on cruise control since being acquired by Google early last year. And ever since, we've been eagerly awaiting post-acquisition Motorola handsets in hopes of a beautiful fusion of an adept hardware manufacturer and the maker of one of our favorite mobile operating systems. In the last month, Motorola drew the curtains on its new outlook on the mobile market, which consisted of four new phones: Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx, Droid Mini, and the Moto X. We've already had an extensive look at the Moto X, and ...

The HTC 8XT was the first Windows Phone in two years to launch on third-largest US carrier Sprint, and it was also Sprint's first Windows Phone 8 model ever. Despite these distinctions, though, the 8XT landed with a pretty ho-hum display and some software hiccups which cost it points in our full review. Those looking for a higher-end experience, then, will be heartened to know that Samsung is on duty: the company has spruced up the casing and a few internal components of its ATIV S, the Windows Phone 8 flagship we reviewed last year, and despite an initial delay, the newly-christened "ATIV ...

How big is too big for a smartphone? That's the question no one seems to know the answer to and some companies seem determined to answer. Sony is one of those companies, and the Xperia Z Ultra is one of its latest experiments. With its display measuring a staggering 6.4-inches, diagonally, it pushes the boundaries of what will fit in your pockets and hands. Under the hood, however, Sony pulled no punches. It equips a Snapdragon 800 chipset, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, a 3,050mAh battery, IP55 and IP58 dust proofing and water resistance, and a bevy of connectivity options. As per usual, we ...

Fresh out of Motorola's New York City Moto X event, we've managed to get our hands on a brand-new Moto X. You've just got the skinny on the phone's hardware and heard a few details about the Android's much-touted customization process, so what more are we waiting for? Let's go hands-on with the Moto X and see what you can expect if you choose to pick one up yourself in a few weeks. This is just a simple black model like will ultimately be available (alongside the white) in retail stores - for more custom builds, you'll have to order online. We go through everything you'll find in the box, ...

At CES this year, NVIDIA held a press conference, where both the Tegra 4 and Shield were announced. The NVIDIA Shield is a Tegra 4-powered portable gaming console which runs Android. The design is practically a relatively generic looking game controller with a 5-inch 720p display that hinges open like any other clamshell device. And the rest of its internals are on par with most other high-end Android smartphones: 2GB RAM, 16GB fixed storage, Wi-Fi b/g/n, microSD card slot, etc. We'll have to put this device to the test to see if it's worth the hefty $299 price tag. In the meantime, be ...

Well, look what we have here! We were only just telling you about what you'd need to do in order to get your hands on a new Nexus 7 a few days early, and now we've got a tablet of our own to unbox for you. This isn't the first time we've looked at how this year's Nexus 7 would arrive – just before the tablet officially launched, we got to check out an early unboxing vid – but we absolutely needed to go hands-on for ourselves with this new hardware. The 2013 Nexus 7 manages to maintain a price admirably close to last year's $200 launch, while overhauling the tablet's specs: we move up ...

Normally, the launch of a carrier-specific variant of an HTC 8X wouldn't merit much in the way of celebration. It certainly wouldn't ordinarily be enough to rearrange our schedule, especially if it meant delaying the recording of the already-late Pocketnow Weekly podcast for another hour, or putting the on-time publication of our Nokia Lumia 1020 review in serious jeopardy. If this were a less-notable device, we'd have pushed it off until Monday. But the HTC 8XT is no ordinary WP8 smartphone. It's Sprint's first Windows Phone 8 device, and only the second Windows Phone the carrier has ever ...

The Nokia Lumia 1020, formerly known as the Lumia 909, formerly known as the Nokia EOS, formerly known as the biggest and brightest rainbow unicorn in all of Windows Phone land ... is here. The 41MP smartphone arrived at the Boston offices a short while ago, courtesy of the fine folks at AT&T, and it's been waiting patiently to be removed from its packaging ever since. Now, thanks to the magic of editing-assisted time travel and just the barest suspension of disbelief, you can come along for the ride, "live," as we free the Lumia 1020 from its carrier-branded cardboard and power it on ...

Nobody likes a cheapskate. It's why we have fun derogatory labels like "tightwad" and "skinflint" for those friends of ours who insist on dividing the bar bill by how many mozzarella sticks they actually consumed, rather than by the cost of the plate. Whatever other merits they might have, penny-pinchers just aren't fun to have around. That's no less true in the case of huge multinational corporations than with people. But where a cheap social friend is pretty easy to jettison when he gets annoying, it's a little harder to make up for the shortfalls of dealing with a cheap company. ...

Okay, we need to say this right up front: we won't be reviewing the CAT B15. The super-rugged device we first caught a glimpse of at MWC 2013 came to our door courtesy of our friends at Clove, and while we're planning a special feature video on the device, we don't have the time to give it the full review treatment. Just managing expectations, so you're not crushed later. Be strong, kids. That said, this is one tough cookie that we just had to take a quick look at. Caterpillar, better known for its tractors, diesel engines, and other big industrial machines, has thrown a lot of rugged ...

We can't all be like Taylor Martin, living it up with a 10-inch Galaxy Tab 3. Some of us need to hang out closer to the midrange, walking the line between the teensy tablets of the world and their supersized siblings. And you know what? That's fine with me. Join me as I take the wraps off the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, the device smack-dab in the middle of Samsung's new generation of Android tablets. These aren't high-end Galaxy Note devices (though a Note 8.0 does make a cameo in the video) but rather lifestyle-oriented tablets offering "more choice and consumer experiences." What does that mean? ...

With the Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom, we are concluding our series of reviewing the phones that Samsung introduced at its London Premiere event. If you missed our Galaxy S 4 Active and Galaxy S 4 mini reviews, click on the links to catch up. While Samsung is marketing this as a phone with a camera, due to its looks, many are considering it the other way around: a camera with a phone. If it matters to you, we’ll let you know what we think of it in our upcoming review. Until then, check out the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom unboxing embedded below! For those that missed it, let’s recap the specs: ...

The Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is Samsung's first Intel-based tablet. It features, of course, a 10.1-inch display at 1,280 by 800 pixels, 1GB RAM, 16 or 32GB fixed storage, a microSD card slot for up to an additional 64GB, a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, and a 6,800mAh battery. Basically, it's the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 all over again, except it has an Intel processor and 200mAh smaller battery. The question is: is the Tab 3 10.1 worth the upgrade or extra cash? It's too soon to tell. But our labs received a Tab 3 10.1 today, so we gave it the unboxing treatment, as per usual! The quick review ...

Taylor Martin might've taught you how to make your own carrier-branded HTC One into a fancy Google-Edition version with some crazy (easy) hacking, and he might even have made another video demonstrating all the reasons you should go ahead and do just that. He might even be working on another video, demonstrating how to reverse all that action and return to the BlinkFeed-rocking world of Sense, at this very moment. But you know what? Sometimes, you don't want to get involved with all that l33t hax0r nonsense. Sometimes, as discussed on today's extended episode of the Pocketnow Weekly ...

Earlier this month, we brought you a sentimental look back at the little platform that couldn't with our Palm Pre unboxing. This week, the Pocketnow Throwback series continues with another pivotal device from smartphone history: the HTC Dream/HTC G1. This unique side-sliding QWERTY communicator was the first commercially-available device to run the then-new Android platform in the fall of 2008, and beneath its robust and utilitarian exterior lay hints of the greatness that was to come. We'll get into that in our full Throwback Review video, coming shortly. For now, tune in as we unbox what ...

The Galaxy S 4 Active. We've talked about it on the Pocketnow Weekly podcast, we've followed its march from rumor to release, and we've even taken it for a dunk in a demo tank in London. Now, thanks to the speedy folks at AT&T, we've got a review version of this durable smartphone in the Pocketnow offices - and in eye-catching Dive Blue, no less! But the folks at UPS must've been tipped off to the rugged nature of our IP67-rated demo unit, because the box arrived on our doorstep in a dilapidated, disintegrating condition. Did the Galaxy S 4 Active survive? Was its 5-inch, 1080p display ...

We're still pretty new to the world of BlackBerry at Pocketnow, having started coverage in earnest just this past winter with the unveiling of the BlackBerry Z10 -and the company's next generation platform- in Toronto. Since then, though, we've given the fledgling new smartphone ecosystem its share of comparisons, reviews, and even re-reviews ... and it's about time we turned our focus to the second BB10 smartphone from the folks formerly known as RIM. It's time to review the BlackBerry Q10. Before we get there, though, we've got to take it out of the box - and that's just what you'll get ...

Samsung announced its newest line of smartphones (made for giants) back in April: Galaxy Mega. If the name isn't indication enough, maybe the screen sizes of these phones will get your phablet flags waving, as Mr. Fisher would say. The Mega comes in two sizes – 5.8 and 6.3-inches. Huge, at least for being marketed as a simply a phone, is an understatement. Where the Galaxy Note 8.0 (non-US model) and Fonepad are small tablets with phone capabilities, the Galaxy Mega 6.3 is nothing more than a giant phone. We received one yesterday morning and, as always, gave it the unboxing treatment. ...

Sometimes you get listener mail that asks how the band got together in the first place. Sometimes that happens the day after you drop some nostalgic sentimentalism all over the internet. Sometimes, simultaneously, there are some sweet, juicy rumors and leaks about a top-of-the-line camera phone with what looks like a moon crater on it. Sometimes you gotta put all that into a podcast with the original cadre of Pocketnow 'casters, and see what comes out. All that, plus the longest outtake reel in the history of Pocketnow, more Nokia EOS rumors than you can shake a stick at, the first-ever ...

It's been four years to the day that Palm's would-be savior platform, webOS, launched to much hoopla with the original Pre. And though the days since have been dark ones indeed for the all-but-dead platform, we thought it would be nice to indulge our nostalgia on this, the anniversary day of "20090606," with a Palm Pre unboxing. Fortunately, our own Michael Fisher happened to have a like-new Palm Pre box, an artifact from a launch-day excursion to his local Sprint store all those years ago. And while the Pre within might charitably be called "well-loved" in terms of its physical condition, ...

Time was, you couldn't get a 9xx-series Lumia on any U.S. carrier but AT&T. For over a year, the nation's second-largest wireless provider has exerted a fierce stranglehold on the high-end Nokia segment, forcing competing carriers to offer only midrange handsets if they wanted to carry the finnish OEM's wares. Things change, though. The Nokia Lumia 928 is the first Lumia flagship to cross the blue/red divide, and it's already available from America's largest carrier, Verizon Wireless. The Lumia 928 resembles a Lumia 920 that discovered the beauty of right angles - but there's more here ...

When we first laid hands on Sony's Xperia Tablet Z back at MWC in Barcelona, only our stalwart professional detachment kept us from falling in love at first sight. The tablet, impossibly thin at 6.9mm and with a just-right weight of 495g, felt incredible in our hands - a feeling that only intensified upon learning the tablet was rated for water resistance to IP55 and IP57 standards. Given our love of durable devices, that was music to our ears. Now, thanks to some quick shipping by our friends at Negri Electronics, we've got an Xperia Tablet Z of our very own here in Pocketnow's ...

Yes, yes: we know the official English-language prefix for "eight" is "octo," but you have to agree that octa just sounds -and looks- a whole lot better. And based on Samsung's choice of spelling on the box that just rolled into our office, the company agrees with us. Besides, admit it: after a week spent watching us dissect the quad-core American variant of the Galaxy S 4, you're hankering for a peek at its Exynos-powered eight-core sibling, no matter how we spell it. Behold: the phone we Yankees call the "international version" of Samsung's latest Android flagship, known to its friends ...

ASUS was teasing the Fonepad in its videos prior to MWC and, at the show, the company introduced a concept which I have personally been waiting for for a long time. You either love it or hate it, there's no middle road there, really. It's a tablet that has an earpiece so that it can double as a phone. Surely, other tablets have phone functionality too but you are limited to either using the speakerphone or some fancy bluetooth accessory which might or might not be included. This is not the case with the Fonepad; just bring it up to your ear, talk, and don't mind all the looks people are ...

HTC and Facebook teamed up last week at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park, California to (hopefully) lay to rest the remaining rumors of any official Facebook phone. Facebook unveiled its latest product, Home, and HTC announced its newest device, the First, the first phone to run Facebook Home out of the box. On the outside, the HTC First is an extremely minimal device. Its all matte-finished exterior and lack of major branding make it very subtle, and its specifications are extremely modest. It features a 4.3-inch 720p display, 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 chip, 1GB RAM, 16GB fixed storage, a ...